Retail

Bloomberg WM Morrison Supermarkets warned that a deterioration in the geopolitical environment in Europe, rising inflation and waning consumer sentiment could hurt its sales and profit this year. Britain’s fourth largest grocer, recently acquired by US private equity group Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC, said “increasing inflationary pressure” has affected the wider grocery market and its own performance since February, …

  Bloomberg A Chinese fast-fashion company without a global network of physical stores of its own is seeking a valuation that could be more than the combined worth of high-street staples Hennes & Mauritz AB and Inditex SA’s Zara. Shein, an online-only retailer of inexpensive clothes, beauty and lifestyle products that pumps out over 6,000 new items daily, is in …

  Bloomberg Sneaker marketplace StockX responded to a trademark-infringement lawsuit from Nike Inc, saying in a court filing that the world’s largest athletic-wear company shows a “fundamental misunderstanding” of nonfungible tokens. In February, Nike filed a complaint in federal court in Manhattan accusing StockX of “blatantly freeriding” on Nike’s trademarks and goodwill with a new service called Vault NFTs. StockX …

  Bloomberg Among the top things that infuriate watch aficionados: replicas, fashion timepieces and battery-powered movements. And yet, the $260 Swatch homage to the Omega Speedmaster that debuted a week ago and caused shopping pandemonium checks all three of those snob boxes, making the collaboration an even more remarkable hit. From London to Berlin to Melbourne, eager consumers snaked around …

  Bloomberg Luxury-goods group Kering SA agreed to pay 187 million euros ($206 million) to settle an Italian probe on alleged tax evasion at its Bottega Veneta unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Italian financial police found that Bottega Veneta used two Swiss affiliates to avoid paying taxes in Italy, the people said, asking to not be named …

Bloomberg Christian Smalls, who started a labour union after being fired by Amazon.com Inc, was on track to potentially win a historic election to unionise one of the e-commerce giant’s facilities in New York. When federal labour officials overseeing the election halted the count, Smalls’ upstart Amazon Labor Union had 1,518 yes votes compared with 1,154 no votes from workers …

  Bloomberg Europe’s biggest mall landlord plans to turn half a billion shoppers into a huge new advertising audience. After two-years of turmoil unleashed by Covid-19, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is working on how it can leverage its shoppers as it charts its recovery to pre-pandemic levels. At the heart of its strategy is a plan to track, monitor and profile the 550 …

  Bloomberg A BNP Paribas Exane analyst slapped a sell-equivalent rating on Amazon.com Inc’s stock, the first time in two years anyone on Wall Street has been bearish on the shares. Amazon’s capital spending is going to be much higher than the market expects, while profit margins will be hurt by “inflation shocks,” analyst Stefan Slowinski said in a phone …

  Bloomberg Lululemon Athletica Inc delivered a sales forecast for this year that exceeded analyst estimates, suggesting that the company is overcoming supply-chain snags that disrupted operations earlier this year. The athletic-wear retailer expects sales to reach as much as $7.62 billion in the current fiscal year that ends next January. The average analyst estimate was $7.2 billion. The company’s …

  Bloomberg Ted Baker Plc’s board rejected two bids from private equity fund Sycamore Partners Management LP, the most recent one for about 254 million pounds ($334 million). Sycamore offered 130 pence a share and raised that to 137.5 pence a share, Ted Baker said. The second bid was 9% higher than the closing price. The shares fell as much …